1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for changing the gears of an automatic transmission which controls the gear selection by use of an electronic device such as a microcomputer and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior method for changing the gears of an automatic transmission determines primarily the gear selection mode according to the opening of a throttle valve in an intake system and the vehicle speed, without changing the gear selection pattern according to the speed of the accelerator pedal depressed by the driver. Hence, even if the driver depresses the accelerator pedal rapidly, expecting large acceleration, or slowly, expecting small acceleration, the same gear selection mode is obtained when the depression amount of the accelerator pedal, i.e. the opening of the throttle valve in the intake system, is the same. Hence, if the accelerator pedal is depressed rapidly, shift-up occurs too soon to provide sufficient desired acceleration, and if depressed slowly, the shift-up tends to be delayed thereby increasing travelling time in the low gear mode, and giving dissatisfactory performance to the driver while producing losses in fuel efficiency.